According to news agency PTI (Via DNA), Mukesh Ambani’s JioCinema and Viacom18 have acquired the TV and digital rights for the Indian cricket team’s home matches for five years, beating Disney+ Hotstar and Sony in a three-way bidding war. Currently, Disney+ Hotstar and Star own the TV and digital rights of all cricket matches. The company had acquired BCCI rights in the last auction by bidding Rs 6,138 crore (Rs 60 crore per match). However, Viacom18 has attracted BCCI by making an even bigger bid.
After the new agreement between BCCI and Viacom18, all domestic and international matches of Team India will be streamed on JioCinema and Sports18 for the next five years (2023 to 2028). For this, Mukesh Ambani’s company will pay a huge amount of Rs 67.8 crore per match to BCCI.
BCCI Secretary Jay Shah congratulated Viacom18 through a post on social media. He wrote, “Congratulations to Viacom18 for winning BCCI media rights for both linear and digital for the next 5 years. Indian cricket will continue to grow in both areas as after IPL and WPLT20, we will also expand our partnership with BBCI Media Rights. Together we will continue to capture the attention of Indian cricket fans.”
Congratulations @viacom18 🤝for winning the @BCCI Media Rights for both linear and digital for the next 5 years. India Cricket will continue to grow in both spaces as after @IPL,and @wplt20we extended the partnership @BCCI Media Rights as well. Together we will continue to…
— Jay Shah (@JayShah) August 31, 2023
Earlier, Viacom18 had acquired the digital rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for four years, from 2023 to 2027, for Rs 48,940 crore. Now, this new five-year deal will show all 88 Team India matches along with the home matches of the women’s cricket team.